WAO Medical Book Review

Reviewer:
Dennis Kim
First year fellow
Division of Allergy and Immunology
University of South Florida College of Medicine and VA Hospital
Tampa, Florida.

Description
Nonallergic rhinitis (NAR) is a clinical syndrome that accounts for approximately 20-50% of all rhinitis. Despite its high prevalence, NAR is a poorly understood entity compared to allergic rhinitis, which enjoys far greater command of knowledge in the realm of clinical and research medicine.

PurposeNonallergic Rhinitis is the latest book in the series “Clinical Allergy and Immunology.” The book represents a growing interest to further elucidate the paradigm of rhinitis: allergic, nonallergic and mixed. This book, however, is the first to focus specifically on NAR, and it concentrates on epidemiology, pathophysiology and treatment.

Audience
Clinicians of all backgrounds will benefit from reading this book as it will enhance their ability to understand and successfully treat patients with upper airway disease.

Features
The book is divided into broad topics and begins with an introduction of NAR, presenting basic anatomy, epidemiology and diagnosis with differential. The following topics are themed towards eosinophilic and non-eosinophilic inflammatory rhinitis and include chapters on known disorders such as nonallergic rhinitis with eosinophilia syndrome (NARES) as well as less well understood entities such as rhinitis in the very young or elderly. A good point is made to include inflammatory conditions involving the nose such as viral or bacterial infections and granulomatous and vasculitic disease. A few chapters are then devoted to non-inflammatory rhinopathy which include discussions on hormonal and cold air-induced rhinitis. The next group of chapters discusses clinical implications and provides practical information on diagnosis with treatment strategies, both surgical and medical. The book then concludes with a section on associated clinical issues that raises the interesting perspective as to how NAR is linked to other common clinical disorders such as chronic fatigue syndrome, obstructive sleep apnea, vocal cord dysfunction, the cough reflex and other functions of chemosensation.

Assessment
Drs. Baraniuk and Shusterman, co-editors of this book, have edited an outstanding text that provides a compilation of knowledge on the subject of NAR. The expertise provided by such an assembly of distinguished authors, both from the United States and elsewhere, allows for this book to fill an important gap in clinical research and practice.